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The local Everest is on break now, with summer classes set to start next Monday. Enrollment is 500 students.

The sales are the result of an agreement struck in June with the U.S. Education Department that saw the federal government allowing Corinthian to get its hands on $16 million in federal student aid funds it needed to stay in business.

Company spokesman Kent Jacobs said the goal is to find a buyer or buyers for the campuses within six months. He declined to discuss potential selling prices.

When asked about likely purchasers, Jacobs said, "In some cases, people are already finding us. In some cases, there are folks who know this field who will reach out to potential buyers."

"One thing that's very distinctive about Rochester is that has a very long history of service to the community ... a long track record of serving students well there," he said.

Everest got its start in 1863 as Rochester Commercial College. For much of its history, what became known as Rochester Business Institute operated on North Clinton Avenue in downtown Rochester under various owners. Corinthian in 2006 bought Rochester Business Institute and made it part of its Everest chain.

The publicly traded company has confronted major federal restrictions concerning its access to federal student aid: the primary source of its revenue. The past year, the Department of Education, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and more than a dozen attorneys general had investigated Corinthian for allegedly falsifying job placement rates and misplacing student attendance records, according to a published report in the Los Angeles Times.

In response, the DOE put a 21-day hold on Corinthian's access to federal student loan money. The loan freeze threatened to derail the corporation, which receives $1.4 billion a year in government financial aid, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Faced with increasing costs and constrained financial resources, Corinthian struck a deal late Thursday with the Education Department to mitigate its shortfalls. The DOE said it will provide $35 million in student aid funding to Corinthian, but its finances must be closely monitored by an independent auditing firm, the Journal report said.

In addition, the DOE said the college corporation has to stop enrolling students at the 12 schools it plans to eventually shut down. Last-minute enrollees at the 12 schools must also have the opportunity to receive a full refund. According to Journal reports, its enrollment for fall 2013 was down nearly 14 percent from a year earlier.

"This agreement allows our students to continue their education and helps minimize the personal and financial issues that affect our 12,000 employees and their families," Corinthian CEO Jack Massimino said in a Thursday news release.